26
of the fairness of thy professions and the foulness of thine intent and thy practice, to the hawk with the partridge.’ ‘How so?’ asked the wolf; and the fox said,
THE HAWK AND THE PARTRIDGE.
‘I entered a vineyard one day and saw a hawk stoop upon a partridge and seize it: but the partridge escaped from him and entering its nest, hid itself there. The hawk followed and called out to it, saying, “O wittol, I saw thee in the desert, hungry, and took pity on thee; so I gathered grain for thee and took hold of thee that thou mightest eat; but thou fledst, wherefore I know not, except it were to slight me. So come out and take the grain I have brought thee to eat, and much good may it do thee!” The partridge believed what he said and came out, whereupon the hawk stuck his talons into him and seized him. “Is this that which thou saidst thou hadst brought me from the desert,” cried the partridge, “and of which thou badest me eat, saying, ‘Much good may it do thee?’ Thou hast lied to me and may God make what thou eatest of my flesh to be a deadly poison in thy maw!” So when the hawk had eaten the partridge, his feathers fell off and his strength failed and he died on the spot.
Know, then, O wolf, that he, who digs a pit for his brother, soon falls into it himself, and thou first dealtest perfidiously with me.’ ‘Spare me this talk and these moral instances,’ said the wolf, ‘and remind me not of my former ill deeds, for the sorry plight I am in suffices me, seeing that I am fallen into a place, in which even my enemy would pity me, to say nothing of my friend. So make thou some shift to deliver me and be thou thereby my saviour. If this cause thee aught of hardship, think that a true friend will endure the sorest travail for his friend’s sake and risk his life to deliver him from perdition; and indeed it hath been said, “A tender friend
